Back on the Oregon Trail

We're writing first thing in the morning today to try something different. We got into Baker City last night under stormy skies and decided to stay in a motel, and we found one with a computer.

The day we posted from White Bird, we got onto US 95 and rode up the Salmon River. It was a Saturday, so there were lots of rafters out--sometimes 7 rafts in line for the rapids. We followed three different river valleys in Idaho. They were all beautiful, but it was neat to see the differences between them. The Salmon was more arid and steeper walled than the Clearwater, and it was fun to watch the rafters. Before we had the bad luck with the weather last week, we were talking about taking a day off for a rafting trip. Seeing the crowds made us feel a little better about not doing it. In Riggins, we bought dinner and breakfast and started climbing up a smaller fork of the Salmon. We ended the day in a high meadow that's the headwaters for the Little Salmon. We stayed at Zim's Hot Springs, and we took a soak after a light meal--a half gallon of chili and 8 oz. of cheddar cheese.

The next morning was cold again. We were above 3000', which seems to be our upper limit for early mornings these days. We stayed in the tent until the sun hit it, and the thermometer said 34. We rode up and out of the meadow to the Weiser River Valley. We stopped for a snack and grocery shopping in Council. The park there had two giant, iron steam tractors and a flag pole made out of old rail road track. We climbed out of the valley to a pass that descended to Hell's Canyon. It was hot, windy and dry. We camped by Brownlee Reservoir that night and, to contrast the night before, were sticking to our sleeping bags.

We woke up yesterday morning and crossed the Idaho-Oregon border! Woohoo. And we're in Pacific Time for the rest of the trip so our cell phones should be less confused. We crossed 3 time zone changes in Idaho. The ride out of Hell's Canyon was pleasant. We had a cool morning and the grades were not too bad. We stopped for a snack in Richland, OR, and Kristin had a flat, which we fixed, and we met another east bounder. Danny from Beijing. Out of Richland, a front moved in with lots of wind. It blew down the canyon we were riding up--right in our faces. It threw tumbleweed at us and nearly brought us to a stop. It started raining about 10 miles from Baker City, and we decided to stay in a motel. Now it's rained on us in every state on the route. Except Maryland, which we were in for an hour. But it didn't rain in Maryland the day of our wedding, so we can count it.

We're still hoping to be in Tigard on Saturday. If you're interested in riding in with us, we should be at the entrance of Champoeg Park around 1:30. If you want to ride your bike down or drive by, we'll ride across the river to Newberg, then up 99 to Tigard. It's about 19 miles from Champoeg to Tigard.

The numbers:

3700--approximate miles so far.